The Supreme Court made history on June 27,. 2003 when it struck down the "sodomy laws" of the state of Texas.  In a 6-3 decision, the justices reversed course from a ruling 17 years ago that states could punish homosexuals for private consensual sex.  Such activity is typically called "sodomy" because of the text we'll study today.

In a survey of passages typically cited on the divisive issue of homosexuality, Genesis 19 and the sin of Sodom is usually listed first.  Lot entertained two angels who came to the city to investigate its sins.  These angels appeared as men; before they went to bed "all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house.  They called to Lot, 'Where are the men who came to you tonight?  Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them'" (vs. 4-5).  For such sin, "the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah" (v. 24), destroying them.

Is this text a condemnation of homosexuality?  Dr. Walter Wink believes not: "That was a case of ostensibly heterosexual males intent on humiliating strangers by treating them 'like women,' thus demasculinizing them" (p. 1).  However, Dr. Wink offers no textual evidence that the men were "ostensibly heterosexual"; his view is only conjectural, and stands against the vast majority of interpretation across the centuries.

Dr. Peter Gomes, the minister at Harvard's Memorial Church and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in Harvard College, offers a different approach.  He has written an extremely erudite introduction to the Bible and its message, The Good Book.  Dr. Gomes, himself a homosexual (p. 164), treats this passage as an attempted homosexual rape, and argues that it does not condemn homosexuality per se (pp. 150-52).

A third approach is suggested by D. Sherwin Bailey, in his influential Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition.  Dr. Bailey argues that the Hebrew word for "know," translated "have sex" by the New International Version, relates not to sexual activity but hospitality.  The word appears more than 943 times in the Old Testament, only 12 times in the context of sexual activity.

However, 10 of these 12 times are in the book of Genesis, the context for our text.  Lot's response to the crowd, offering his daughters so they can "do what you like with them," makes clear that he interpreted their desires as sexual (v. 8).  Everett Fox's excellent translation of Genesis includes the note, "the meaning is unmistakably sexual" (p. 80).  And Jude 7 settles the question as to whether sexual activity is meant by our text: "Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion."

It is also the case that Jewish and later Christian interpretation of the passage has historically and commonly seen the sin in Sodom as homosexuality itself, not just attempted rape.  While this fact does not settle the interpretative question, it is worth noting as we proceed.